Where do you get your fibreglass and other questions

pawn

pawn

Over 1,000 Posts
I'm gonna do some fiberglass work in order to try and sus out a good seat pan for my bike. I've done some rough glassing years ago, and I have a good friend who knows his stuff willing to help me. Only thing is he gave me a link to some company called "Fiber Glast", and while I'm sure it's a good link, it offers nothing for the lamen. I can't follow what's what, and what I need. My desire is simple, I want some fibreglass and epoxy resin to make a seatpan...so are there any reasonably priced kits out there for such a thing, or at least non-super-technical sites that even I could understand what I'm ordering?

thanks,

jeff
 
I used www.fiberglasssite.com.

They have a "learning center" that explains things like how much resin you need. I ordered 5 yards of black fiberglass cloth and a 0.67 gallon kit of epoxy resin. The cloth is 57 by 54 threads, a little tighter than I would have liked. But it looks just like carbon fiber. I would say what I got is enough for two full sized seats with some left over.

I'm halfway through my seat and the epoxy seems to be high quality - very clear when dry. I have about 30 minutes to work with it before it kicks.


So, yeah. www.fiberglasssite.com - all kinds of roving, cloth, mat, mold release wax, resins

Hope this helps you guys some
 
tamickler said:
I used www.fiberglasssite.com.

They have a "learning center" that explains things like how much resin you need. I ordered 5 yards of black fiberglass cloth and a 0.67 gallon kit of epoxy resin. The cloth is 57 by 54 threads, a little tighter than I would have liked. But it looks just like carbon fiber. I would say what I got is enough for two full sized seats with some left over.

I'm halfway through my seat and the epoxy seems to be high quality - very clear when dry. I have about 30 minutes to work with it before it kicks.


So, yeah. www.fiberglasssite.com - all kinds of roving, cloth, mat, mold release wax, resins

Hope this helps you guys some
Click to expand...
so do you need roving for this type of application, or is it just glass cloth and resin that is needed?
 
Mat requires the use of more resin and it's harder to lay down flat -- it would require more sanding. It is, however, supposed to lay on corners better than cloth. I haven't had a problem with only cloth. (but keep in mind that I'm in the middle of my first seat)

This might be helpful:
CCRider's seat - http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=7890.15
 
I checked out the fiber glast link, http://www.fibreglast.com/ and thought is was actually quite good. Lots of good basic information in the "free online brochures" under the Learning Center drop down menu.

The link from Tamickler looked good also. They seem to have good prices, but I've never used their products.

Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/cm/index.html also sells lots of composite materials and they have pretty good descriptions of all the products on the site. I really like the West System Epoxy, but I've also used the Alpha Poxy which worked well and is considerably cheaper. You may also have a West Marine store near you and can get the West System Epoxy locally.

If you're building a one-off styrofoam male mold part, all you really need is the cloth and resin.

CC
 
johnson_steve said:
Wow. I am so getting some of that woven black fiberglass. I didn't know that existed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's pretty neat stuff. Just pulled my first seat off and it feels to be about 3 pounds. As a rower, I see the real stuff (carbon fiber) for a couple hours a day. Ths is a much cheaper alternative, and strong enough for most applications. Just pay attention to the thread numbers....the cloth I got is a pretty tight weave...not like what's used in racing boats. But it still looks good nonetheless.
 
tamickler said:
Mat requires the use of more resin and it's harder to lay down flat -- it would require more sanding. It is, however, supposed to lay on corners better than cloth. I haven't had a problem with only cloth. (but keep in mind that I'm in the middle of my first seat)

This might be helpful:
CCRider's seat - http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=7890.15
Click to expand...

you probably don't want to use mat with epoxy, it's designed to be used with polyester or vinyl ester, so that the binders holding the mat together dissolve and you end up with a loosely bound sheet of loose fibers in your polyester. if you wet it out on a separate sheet and apply it after a minute or so, you can drape it to almost any curve, but with epoxy, it stays really stiff and never fully binds with the epoxy... $.02
 
My next question, which I know is a tough one to judge, but I'm curious at how much cloth goes into a seat...

I know it varies greatly but I'm more looking for a big ball park figure... I'm looking to purchase some and am curious how much people buy...
 
i've been told to start with 4 layers to give myself a good strength base and if I need to, work up from that. It depends on the size of your seat and how it's supported in order to judge what strength is necessary to hold you as well as the shape. A flat seat supported fully by the rails would need less strength than one supported by a mounting point such as the fender mounts as seen on some bikes. Obviously you have to take my advice with a grain of salt since I'm the new guy asking questions on here as well, but I have seen work done and done a little myself (not on anything that works out of the water...but similar enough.)

Finally as for yardage needed, you just measure your width of the seat you want, length...multiply and you have square inches. Multiply that by 4, and your overs (lets say another two to three layers) and then just divide that by the square inches in a yard, and it will tell you how much you need. Widths of cloth varies from manufacturer to manufacturer I've found, so work that into your equation too.
 
I think what I'm looking for is...

"Here's a seat I did, it took this much resin, this much hardener, and I used this much fabric"...

I just want a wild idea if it's 4 yards or 40 yards...
 
hrmmm well for cloth let's say... you want a total amount of about 30-40 oz/yard of glass and the appropriate amount of resin, assuming you're using a fairly good resin (read into this not the hardware or auto store kind), so let's say you want to use 6oz cloth and your seat idea has 1/4 yard of surface area then you're going to want 40/6*.25 yards, assuming you can cut with no waste... so maybe figure 1.5 that amount for wastage. if you're using 10oz cloth, same math applies... my seats are build into a mold so the quantities are exact and for one example, it takes 4oz gelcoat, 24oz resin and 1 yard of 2oz matt, 1 chip brush, 4 dixie cups, 4 tongue depressors, 2 feet of aluminum foil (for pre wetting the matt) and the time and tlc to do it right :)
 
www.uscomposites.com.

Great selection of resins and fiber cloth, plus pigments and all that jazz. I order a lot of my sculpture material from them, I use epoxy resin for a lot of my work. They do have poly resins too.
 
anarki650 said:
www.uscomposites.com.

Great selection of resins and fiber cloth, plus pigments and all that jazz. I order a lot of my sculpture material from them, I use epoxy resin for a lot of my work. They do have poly resins too.
Click to expand...

Great link.

Thanks, CC
 
Yeah, they are a great company to do business with too. Quick delivery and cheap prices compared to everything else I found when I was needing the epoxy resin.
 
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